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Monday, June 29, 2015

Several years ago, I realized I wasn't dealing with my son's
autism diagnosis very well. Too much rage, too much
helplessness. Just too much. So I started seeing a counselor,
and I saw her for several years.

During that time, I decided I wanted to write about Ganymede, the
teenager who was kidnapped by Zeus to serve as his cupbearer on
Olympus. Zeus sees Ganymede on the earth below, decides he's the
coolest kid ever, changes into an eagle, and snatches Ganymede up
to Olympus. Zeus then persuades Hebe to make Ganymede immortal,
then dumps Hebe as his cupbearer and gives that exalted position
to Ganymede.

Only two and a half stories about Ganymede have survived--the
story of his kidnapping, a mention in the Iliad about Zeus giving
Ganymede's father a set of horses in payment for the loss of his
son (that's the half), and a story in which Ganymede loses a game
of dice against Eros, and gets mad at him. That's it.

When I got older and read the actual material instead of the
summaries and children's versions, I learned that Ganymede was
more than Zeus's cupbearer. Zeus also took Ganymede to his bed.
This was part of Greek culture--a powerful man would often serve
as a mentor/teacher/second father/love interest to a teenaged
male. Usually the parents went along with this: "Good news, son!
Your uncle has offered to be your mentor!" So Ganymede was a
mythological parallel to this mortal custom.

The stories, however, never went into what it was like. What was
it LIKE for Ganymede to be

snatched away from his family and
friends and suddenly make into the cupbearer and lover of the king
of gods? You have the ultimate mentor, but it wasn't anything
you'd asked for. Your culture

teaches you that being taken to
this guy's bed is a good thing, or at least something you can put
up with because all of us men went through it, but how do you
=really= handle it?

I ended up using my therapist as a resource here. She had
counseled many survivors of sexual assault and was an expert. I
told her about the book and said my theory was that a teenager in
Ganymede's position would have a lot of mixed feelings.

Sexual assault victims often feel shame because our society has
(incorrectly) decreed that victims of sexual assault have done
something wrong, that they're bad people who have become further
soiled. But Ganymede's culture says that being chosen as a mentee
is an honor and a duty, and if you're chosen by the king of gods
himself, you must be an amazing person.

And yet . . .

Ganymede at a stroke loses his family, his friends, and his home. He changes from a mortal into an immortal. He is thrust into a
group of powerful people who see him as a pawn in a greater game
that Ganymede himself doesn't quite understand. He's at the beck
and call of Zeus, who does some pretty dreadful things. And he'll
be a teenager for the rest of his immortal life.

Some major mixed feelings there.

My counselor agreed. "This would be way too complex for it to be
one-sided," she said (or my notes

say she said). "He would love
it one moment and hate it the next. There would likely be periods
of great sadness and great happiness until he adjusted. You can
love and hate someone--people do that all the time, especially
when it comes to sex, or to someone you're =supposed= to love but
aren't sure you do, or with someone you think you love but don't
understand why. Don't be afraid to show that between Ganymede and
Zeus."

I set out to explore this in DANNY. Or at least, partly. Half
the book is set in ancient Greece and half the book is set in
modern America. Danny tells Ganymede's story while he tells his
own, and the two overlap in strange ways. It's the most
complicated, layered novel I've ever written, with plenty of
shout-outs to lovers of Greek mythology.

Saturday, June 27, 2015

With my diagnosis of cataracts (in both eyes), I began to
consider my alternatives. The simplest, which is to do nothing and rely on
eyeglasses for increasingly inadequate visual correction, was not very
appealing, especially since lens replacement surgery was now “medically
necessary.” Medicare, like most insurance plans, covers only the bare minimum:
a single focus (“monofocal”) artificial replacement lens, usually for distance,
with the natural lens being removed and the new one inserted by scalpel.
Monofocal lenses give most people excellent distance vision, although they do
not correct for astigmatism, and usually require the use of glasses for reading
and intermediate distance work.

These are not the only lenses available. Lenses can be toric
(astigmatism correcting), or can correct for more than one distance. Multifocal
lenses can provide a full range of vision (or so the literature says),
including presbyopia, the difficult in reading that comes with age, but they
can also result in halos around street lights and other visual difficulties at
night. They also don’t come in all powers of correction. Accommodative lenses
can correct for distance and intermediate vision, which means that glasses may
be needed for reading; they flex like a normal, healthy lens. Even more technological innovations are in the works, especially as baby boomers age and demand better solutions.

Thursday, June 25, 2015

So you've finished your novel -- but have you? That first draft needs work, but where to begin? In

this round table series, I asked professional authors how the approach revision -- not polishing, but truly re-visioning a story.

Kari Sperring:

Ah,
revisions.

I’m
revising a book right now, and, as a result, my instinctive response to any
question about revisions is ‘revisions are the worst. Apart from writing the
first draft. That’s the worst, too.’ When it comes to writing, I definitely
tend to the Eeyore. Whatever I’m doing right now is the hardest thing, the most
uncontrolled, unfocused, worrisome thing.

I’m a
very ill-disciplined writer. For preference, I write without an outline – and
if I do outline, it tends to consist of a handful of possible scenes plus notes
on theme and feel. My desk is littered
with scraps of paper on which I have scrawled ideas for future scenes and
plot-turns, many of them only semi-legible and usually out of order. Whether or
not I get to them is very random: it depends on what turn the book takes and on
what I remember. None of which helps when it comes to revising.

With both Living With Ghosts and the book I’m currently working on, I wrote
a complete first draft and then rewrote the book from scratch, ending up with a
different plot, new characters, and a different outcome. Quenfrida didn’t enter
LWG until draft 2. Nor did Joyain.
The first draft of the current project seemed to consist mainly of walks and
conversations. This new one is full of riots and acts of sabotage, and one of
the protagonists is currently disembodied. It’s not the book it was, and I hope
it’s better for it, but right now – as always seems to be the case with me and
revisions – it feels vast and sprawling and random, a morass of scenes and
ideas galloping off in nine different directions, and me in the middle trying
desperately to get the whole thing back under control.

Thursday, June 18, 2015

So you've finished your novel -- but have you? That first draft needs work, but where to begin? In

this round table series, I asked professional authors how the approach revision -- not polishing, but truly re-visioning a story.

Judith Tarr:

How do you approach revising a book?

I prefer to revise than to write first draft. Revision is my reward for
slogging through the draft. Since I do most of my "prewriting" either
in notes or in my head, and generally have my plot either outlined or again,
clear in my head, my drafts tend to be very spare but pretty much complete. My
editor will usually tell me to expand; I've never had to cut, I've always had
to add. Sometimes a lot.

Of cuss the editorial letter can make me say bad words, because in my dreams I
submit a perfect draft that needs no more than a light waft of proofreading
before it bursts out upon the world. In reality, if I'm lucky, I don't have to
add or change much. If I'm not...well, there was that time I had to rewrite the
whole thing with a different but much more appropriate protagonist. Or the time
I had to add 50,000 words. Or...

What makes revision different from polishing or rewriting, or is there a
difference?

Revision for me is what I do after I've received outside input. Usually that's
the editorial letter. I don't use beta readers in general; have pulled in a
reader once in a while for expert advice or clear-eyed input, but mostly it's
just me and my ms. until it meets its editor.

Do you work things out in your head, work only from the manuscript (and if so, on
the computer or a printed hard copy), some combination of both?

I work on the computer with my editorial letter in hand, with however many
passes the ms. needs. Picky stuff first (wording, clarifications, continuity
notes, etc.). While I'm going through to get the small stuff cleared up, the
back of my mind is mulling over the big stuff: expansion of character roles,
plot elements, worldbuilding notes, and so on. Those get done in waves as I can
handle them.

I try to find the spot where a change or expansion has the maximum effect. A
change in a word or a line at the exact right place can resonate through the
whole ms. That's the dream change.

Or, doing the minimum required to make the book work according to my vision and
the editor's input. It's the lazy writer's technique, and if I do it right, it
makes a huge difference to the quality of the work.

And I am so relieved that this is a real phenomenon, and not further proof that I need cataract surgery. I don't see multiple colored rings, but a soft halo the same color as the object (white, in the case of the Moon).

Saturday, June 13, 2015

For some years now, maybe a decade, I’ve complained about my
“old eyes.” I’ve never had good vision without corrective lenses. I think I
started wearing glasses in 3rd grade. I remember getting contact
lenses in 1960. They were hard lenses, of course, and required a long period of
getting used to, all the while putting up with light sensitivity and scratchy,
red eyes. They did, however, get me out of having to play softball – which I
was so bad at, it was embarrassing – in high school; the first windy day blew
so much dust into my eyes, the school let me switch to swimming. For some
reason, maybe the steepness of my corneas, the lenses stayed put in water. As a
result, I learned to swim.

For a long time, hard (“rigid gas-permeable”) lenses were a
great solution for me. I don’t have issues about handling my eyes, and best of
all, they gave me great correction. My brain thought the world had sharp edges.
And so it went for many years.

Eventually I ran into one situation or another where I
needed glasses. For some strange reason, hospitals want you to take your contacts
out. So I got them, even though years would go by without using them. And then,
of course, I’d need a different prescription. I got a pair just for reading in
bed, part of my night time ritual.

Fast forward a number of decades. Dry, scratchy eyes became
more of a problem, especially when working at the computer, and often it seemed
as if the lenses couldn’t quite settle (and give me good correction), no matter
how many times I blinked. I’d take them out and clean them, and sometimes that
would help. Driving at night became more tiring. I could no longer see the night
sky clearly, and I was pretty sure I’d been able to, once upon a time.

Thursday, June 11, 2015

So you've finished your novel -- but have you? That first draft needs work, but where to begin? In this round table series, I asked professional authors how the approach revision -- not polishing, but truly re-visioning a story.

Rosemary Edghill:"How do you approach
revising a book? What makes revision different from polishing or rewriting, or
is there a difference? Do you work things out in your head, work only from the
manuscript (and if so, on the computer or a printed hard copy), some
combination of both? Do you write out takes, read sections aloud? What advice,
if any, would you give a beginning writer? What's been the most useful thing
another writer has taught you?"

I consider revision to be a collaboration between the
writer and the editor, as distinct from polishing and rewriting. When
you're polishing, you're making the best book you can make with only yourself
to please. Revision involves shaping your book to someone else's
vision. The trick is to do it without breaking it.

I work entirely on computer, which has advantages and
disadvantages. There are a number of formatting tricks you can use (in
Word 2003, which is what I work in) to make the book fresh to your eyes,
including formatting it as if it is already a page of printed book text.
While you're writing the book, you focus on story: for the revision, you're
keeping your eye on transparency, reader accessibility, and narrative
flow. Setting a manuscript up in book form gives you a much clearer idea
of (frex) how far apart two pieces of information (that you expect the reader
to retain and combine) are placed.

Another Word 2003 advantage (probably available in other
programs, but Word is what I know) is the "Track Changes" function,
where you can see the revision on the page with the new text inserted and the
old text X'd out. I use that a lot when I'm trying to track down doubled
or repeated paragraphs (an artifact of being able to cut and paste) or to see
how a global replace is going to affect things.

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

I really should remember to write up my notes and
impressions of a convention soon after because they fade with astonishing
speed. For example, I flipped open the program of Baycon 2015 (May 22-24, Santa Clara CA) panels, looking for a
blog subject. “Inspiring the Next Generation of Science Fiction Writers” – ooh,
I thought, I have a few things to say about that. Palm to forehead time: I was on
that panel!

Not only that, my dear friend and awesome science fiction
writer Juliette Wade was on it with me. Also a very cool guy named Colin Fisk,
and “the Winner Twins,” two young women writers who dress alike, collaborate,
and definitely spoke for the younger generation. My own perspective arises from
coming of age during the space race. I remember the hoopla about Sputnik (in
fact, I made a Sputnik costume for Halloween) and how cool it was to like
science and engineering. Physics and astronomy were majorly splashy news. We
don’t have an equivalent now in terms of the general conversation, although the
images from Hubble and the other space telescopes are even more awesome. The
Winner twins came a gaming perspective, seeing video games as instruments to
not only teach science but inspire players to learn more. Of the latter, I
remain dubious. On the other hand, I remain hopeful that the various efforts to
attract more women and minorities to math and science may result in a new
generation of science fiction writers as well.

Sometimes my panels and other convention events revolve
around a theme. This could be the vagaries of chance, the items I ticked off on
my guest questionnaire, or simply the way the convention programming folks
work. Baycon 2015’s theme was gender and sexuality. More or less. I moderated “Pink
Hockey Sticks: Raising a Gender Neutral Child in a Highly Gendered World.” One
of my favorite resources for this is the blog Raising My Rainbow: Adventures in Raising a
Fabulous, Gender Creative Son (although I think it should be child, but it’s
not my kid, so I don’t get to vote). The cool thing is that one of the
panelists was an intersex person, which is a viewpoint not often included in “Quiltbag”
(LGBTQI) discussions. We all lamented the paucity of gender-neutral pronouns
and emphasized that the polite thing to do is inquire the preference of the
person.

Monday, June 8, 2015

For various reasons, mostly having to do with the fact that my
husband never flies anywhere, he now has a free subscription to a magazine
aimed primarily at a male readership. Out of curiosity, I flipped through it. And
was suitably amused and horrified. Come with me on an adventure in befuddlement…

This ad for an airline offers drinks on the house (image of
man’s hand holding airline-plastic cup of beer). Drinking at altitude is such a
colossally bad thing for your hydration, this airline is evil.

Table of contents: Ooh, a person I want to read about.

Ad for men’s eyeglass frames. What were you smoking to think
these might make a man look even remotely attractive?

A cancer hospital’s goal is…wait for it…curing cancer.

This ultra-modern watch is ahead of its time. And its face
is also unreadable, especially at a quick glance. It’s analog but has no second
hand. Why bother?

I think this ad is for a tablet, but I’m not sure. It could
be the thing that holds a tablet. The company is marketing to folks who already
want their product.

Saturday, June 6, 2015

Open Minded Health is back up and running with a timely report on a study about how the hormones used in gender transition affect body fat:

Hormone therapy for trans people has long been known to change body shape and body fat percentage. But by how much? And how much can be expected in the first year? A European study of 77 trans women and 73 trans men found out!

On average over the first year of hormones…

Both trans women and trans men gained weight overall. On average they gained around 4-6 pounds (2-3 kg). Both groups started with a BMI around 24 (just barely between normal weight and overweight). For trans men, this weight gain tipped them into the “overweight” category. Trans women stayed in the “normal” weight category.

Trans women gained body fat and lost muscle mass. Their body fat went up from 24% to 28%. They lost a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of muscle mass.

Trans men lost body fat and gained muscle mass. Their body fat went down from 34% to 30%. They gained 5 kilograms (11 pounds) of muscle mass.

There wasn’t much of a significant different in waist sizes.

It may be helpful to remember body fat percentage numbers. For cis women, 21-31% is considered a fit or normal range. For cis men, 14-25% is the fit or normal range. So the trans women in this study started out at an average body fat percentage and stayed there. The trans men in this study started off with too much body fat and stayed there.

During the first year of hormones it seems that around a 4% change in body fat can be expected. Trans men can gain quite a bit of muscle. Trans women will lose some muscle.

As a final note: this was a European study. The hormones used in Europe are different than the ones used in the United States. The results may not be applicable in the United States.

If you want to sell
cheap and fast, as Amazon does, you have to sell big. Books written to be best
sellers can be written fast, sold cheap, dumped fast: the perfect commodity for
growth capitalism.The readability of
many best sellers is much like the edibility of junk food. Agribusiness and the
food packagers sell us sweetened fat to live on, so we come to think that’s
what food is. Amazon uses the BS Machine to sell us sweetened fat to live on,
so we begin to think that’s what literature is.I believe that reading
only packaged microwavable fiction ruins the taste, destabilizes the moral
blood pressure, and makes the mind obese. Fortunately, I also know that many
human beings have an innate resistance to baloney and a taste for quality
rooted deeper than even marketing can reach.

Le Guin’s perspective reminds me of an experience I had when
I was a fairly new writer. I’d sold a handful of short stories to professional
markets and I was perpetually working on one novel or another but I hadn’t sold
one yet. Because I was still learning how to write at novel length, I wrote
really awful, disorganized first drafts and then revised over and over. It took
me a couple of years to get a novel into sufficiently good shape that I felt
comfortable in sending it out. That was okay, because each one was better than
the one before. They were better written, but also deeper in concept and
grander in scope. I was getting personalized rejection letters from editors,
which encouraged me greatly. At a convention, I encountered an author who had
already sold several novels. In fact, he (nominal pronoun for the sake of the
article) was churning out three or four a year. When I asked him how he did
that, he told me he never revised. He’d write a draft and that was it.

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Tajji, our elderly German Shepherd Dog, came to live with us
a little over a year ago when she retired from seeing eye guide dog work. She
learned new behaviors in the process of “being just a dog.” Her behavior also
showed us some of the many things dogs who help the blind must learn. Some of
these are responses to commands. Tajji knows “Go Right,” “Go Left,” “Easy (slow
down),” and “Back,” for instance. She was also able to enter a mall (a chaotic
place for a dog) with her blind person and, never having been in this place
before, guide him to an elevator, escalator, or rest room.

We also noticed other behaviors from her training. She would
remain lying down in the same place after we had stepped over her, touching
her. Not moving would allow a blind person to remember where she is (and not
trip over her, at least, not twice.) She uses a gentle nose touch as a greeting
(as do most dogs; it’s polite) but also to let us know when she has come to sit
beside us. She asks for attention by touching an arm, sometimes neatly
inserting her nose underneath a hand. In fact, she initiates physical contact
so much we suspect she was not only trained to do so, but bred for the
predisposition.

All of this got my writer’s imagination started thinking
about different ways dogs can be partners with humans. Years ago, I loved
watching movies about Zato-ichi, a blind swordsman in Japan. He had
preternatural hearing, and his ears would twitch when he heard an enemy
approach, undoubtedly a theatrical device to point out to the audience what was
happening internally. Since I was preparing to write a story for Sword & Sorceress 30, the idea came
to me of a blind swordswoman – and putting
Tajji in the story. How would they interact? What could the dog tell my
character and how?

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